that may be, but basically all the professional landscapers, municipal road crews, golf courses etc around here use Gravely almost exclusively. You're talking daily mowing, sometimes 10-12 hours a day, and they hold up. I don't baby ours and it's run without a hiccup for ten years
that was kind of a joke . . . heard it 30 years ago from the dealer who sold me my first JD mower. He eventually got out of selling them because they cost so much and Deere got really bad at replacement parts for old-but-not-so-old models
This is only $11K...what a bargain! https://www.toro.com/en/product/Z-Master-4000-HD-Zero-Turn-Riding-Lawn-Mower
those zero turns with the big motors really move along at a good clip. The downside from switching from a riding mower is the learning curve to use the push bars for steering . . . I put it in the swamp a couple of times that first year or two
That's what my cousins/uncles all said, various makes/manufacturers of the same thing. You pay a lot extra for that green and yellow stuff. eta: same with CAT
for them, minutes are dollars. A zero turn will mow twice as many yards an hour. comfort of operator comes second, they are at work. for many homeowners, if it takes them a little longer and they can drink a beverage or talk on the phone with one handed steering, not eat dust because the mower deck isn't way out in front and their wife can hop on sometimes because it drives exactly like her RDX, that's a huge win. The decks, engines and hydraulics are almost all the same now. tractors for slower torque, ZT for speed. Most guys are on 32-36" stand on mowers now. They are even faster and fit todays smaller back gates. Convince a homeowner to buy that lol.
If it isn't too much yard and there is minimal amount of change in direction (backing and turning), then the riding lawn tractor (or whatever it is called) should be acceptable. If there is quite a bit of yard to chew through and/or a fair amount of changing in direction, then consider spending more for a Zero Turn. What would take me a solid 2 hours to do with a riding lawn tractor was done in about 1 hour and 15 minutes with a Zero Turn. If you get at least 10 years of service from the Zero Turn, then the hit in the price premium over the lawn tractor isn't bad if your time is worth something. How long was it taking to get the job done with your veteran JD?
1 hour or so each place X 4 Multiple acres, multiple avoidances of obstacles, multiple picking up rocks/limbs/etc out of the way, multiple 90' angles in the pens...so eta: also I'm not always cutting little prissy yard/golfcourse bermuda grass...some of this stuff is stalk-ey, thick, and troublesome.
When I would mow with the lawn tractor, I would do 1/2 of the wide open space and make good time. Then mow around all of the buildings, trees etc and it was a drag because of the time spent shifting and backing. Then finish the other 1/2 of the wide open space to feel positive again. Do you know somebody with a Zero Turn that could/would do a demonstration on one of the four places so you can see what is possible?
POINT OF ORDER: people, and the sellers, are calling a riding mower a "lawn tractor". It's a riding mower. A tractor is a tractor. Carry on.
Oh yeah, the Kubota salesman is practically related, he said "we got a bunch of room, yall can just drive it around all you want" "hell, take it home"
